Fascias, soffits and guttering in Swanage
Cast iron runs, painted timber boards and modern uPVC renewed or repaired across the town, with the material written on the quote before anything is ordered.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Getting on for three in ten Swanage homes went up before 1919, so a lot of the roofline here is painted timber and cast iron. On those buildings the boards and the gutters are part of the appearance, and on a listed one they are part of the fabric, which changes what you are allowed to put back.
The calls come in three shapes. A cast iron gutter rusted through at the back that now sends water down the wall. A painted timber fascia with the paint blown off and the joints opened. Or a soffit gone soft under a union that has dripped through several winters.
Somebody goes up and tests the boards with a screwdriver before any talk of materials, and looks hard at the fixings too, because within a couple of kilometres of the water those let go first. The survey covers every elevation, the verges and each downpipe, and it goes in writing, itemised, line by line. The site visit and the quote are both free.
The work
Stone frontages, cast iron runs and exposed gables
Reading it from the pavement. Blistered and peeling paint on a timber board means water is behind the film and the timber stays wet, so another coat achieves nothing. A green stripe down the front of a board means the run over it has been spilling onto the timber season after season. A gutter standing proud of the board, pulled away at one end, or sagging between brackets, has lost its fixings into soft wood, and a leaking joint at a union or a run overflowing in a downpour is a different fault again. Then the screwdriver: sound timber stops it, rotten timber lets it in like cork.
Cast iron is often worth keeping. Corrosion begins on the hidden inner face and works out, and the rust it leaves holds water hard against the timber behind. If the length is still whole it deserves lifting off, cleaning back to metal inside, painting there and re-jointing, rather than going in a skip, and on a listed building that is usually the answer anyway. For a length that is genuinely finished, cast iron is still cast today, and aluminium and thick section plastic are both made in matching mouldings that carry the same shadow line from across the road.
The rest of the run. Lengths and their unions, the brackets under them, the outlet, a hopper head, the downpipe and the shoe. That is the list to look down when a gutter misbehaves, not the length of it. We remove the old run whole, refix brackets at the spacing the profile needs and tighter on an exposed elevation, then re-hang to a fall taken off a string line, because a run hung dead level looks perfect and stands water in it every month of the year. Half round is the ordinary domestic profile, ogee carries more and sits flat to the fascia, square is the modern version, and a long steep slope or a valley discharging into an eaves run wants deepflow or a second outlet.
Behind the boards. Take the fascia down and the eaves is open. Rafter feet, and behind them the wall plate; the tilt fillet that props the bottom course of tiles; and the underlay, taken over a felt support tray so it drips clear instead of stopping on the board. BS 5534 covers that eaves detail and it is the first thing skipped when a roofline is sold as a facelift. On an unlisted house, capping over timber that is dry and hard is fair work. Over soft timber it is a lid, and your new brackets bite into nothing.
Air, salt and wildlife. Air comes into a cold roof at the eaves through the soffit, so soffit vents go back into the new board, or an over fascia vent instead, and the air gap over the insulation is left clear. Block that eaves ventilation and the felt runs with condensation while mould spreads over rafters that were sound. Approved Document F is the standard for it. Under two kilometres from the water, salt settles up there and keeps everything damp between showers, going for the fixings before the boards, so non ferrous screws and clips on any seaward elevation. Every pipe has to discharge into a gully or a soakaway that genuinely takes it, because water at the back of the gutter leaves staining down a render and driving rain never lets it dry. Birds nest behind a soffit through any open joint, and moss and debris off the tiles pack an outlet solid.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
Same team from first visit to last, one person to ring, and no sub-contracting your work out to somebody you have never met. The quote is itemised, not a figure on the back of a card: access, the length of each run, stripping the old boards and gutter, the fascia, soffit and any bargeboard, the gutter, outlets and downpipes, and disposal on separate lines, so you can compare it properly against anyone else's.
Nothing is left open or unusable overnight. The site is swept at the end of each day rather than the end of the job, and what comes out leaves with us. If something turns up once we start that nobody could have seen, you get a photograph and a price before we carry on.
Boards and rainwater goods put back the same as they came off are repair, so there is nothing to apply for and nothing for building control to see, and regulation 12 of the Building Regulations 2010 is where that line sits. Dorset Council is the planning authority, and Swanage carries well over a hundred listed entries, so it is worth knowing whether yours is one before you order anything. On a listed building the gutters, hoppers and boards count as fabric and consent is granted under section 7 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, with listed building consent setting out what that covers.
Cost
What decides the price of a roofline
No rate per square metre, because a metre of fascia over a bay is not the same metre as one on a straight gable.
Getting to it. A terraced house with the run out over a narrow pavement, a stone fronted house three storeys up and a bungalow on the hill behind each need a different platform. A bungalow run comes off a tower, a two or three storey gable wants a scaffold, and a run over a conservatory or a bay window means building the platform around it. The work at height rules are why the access is a priced line rather than something absorbed into a rate.
What is behind the boards. Rotten fascia is a symptom. The question is whether the rafter feet and the wall plate behind it are still sound, and nobody knows until the old board comes off. Capping over with plastic hides that instead of fixing it, which is why we take the old boards off rather than clad them.
The run, not the metre. A straight gable is quick. Bay windows, a conservatory in the way, a corner return, a run that has to be worked around a satellite dish or a service cable, and every outlet, hopper and downpipe are priced one at a time. So is putting the fall back: a gutter hung level looks fine and holds water all year.
Comparing quotes? Ask whether the old boards are coming off or being capped over, what happens if the rafter feet or the wall plate turn out to be rotten, whether the gutter, outlets and downpipes are all being renewed or only the fascia, and whether the scaffold is in the price. Two quotes for the same job are usually two different jobs.
If a section has come away
A gutter hanging off, or a fascia gone through
Ring rather than use the form. A length of gutter pulled off its brackets, a downpipe snapped at the bend or a fascia soft enough to put your hand through goes to the front of the queue, because the next heavy rain runs straight down the wall and into the brickwork. The first visit is about getting it supported and discharging somewhere sensible, and we price the run properly once we can see how far the rot goes. Swanage is about eight miles across the harbour and we are over most weeks, so a run hanging over a pavement goes to the front of the queue. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
If it is listed, the gutter is not a shopping decision
Swanage has a very large number of listed entries for a town its size, and plenty of them are ordinary houses rather than churches and manor houses. That matters for a roofline because listing covers the whole building. The cast iron gutter, the hopper head, the moulded fascia and the deep bargeboard all count as fabric, so taking them off and putting white plastic up is an alteration rather than a repair, and it can need listed building consent.
None of that means you are stuck with a leaking run. Repairing cast iron in place, or replacing a rotten timber board with the same section and moulding, is usually straightforward and rarely contentious. Swapping the lot for plastic is the part that needs asking about. The order to do it in matters: get somebody up there to say what has actually failed, get the profile, the section and the material written down, have the consent conversation, then order. Doing it the other way round is how people end up with materials they cannot put on the building.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Swanage, Herston, Durlston, Langton Matravers, Studland and Corfe Castle, broadly BH19, under Dorset Council. You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building, the trading name of Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, which you can look up in a minute. Thomas Hannen's business, and he is the one who comes out to price the job, not a salesman. A verified customer's 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The visit and the written quote are both free.
Questions
Swanage questions we get asked
How do I know if my house is listed?
Listing is a matter of public record and worth checking before you order anything, because there are a great many listed entries in Swanage and plenty are ordinary houses. If yours is one, the gutters, hoppers and boards are fabric and altering them can need consent.
Can a rusted cast iron gutter be saved?
Usually yes. Corrosion starts on the inner face nobody can paint, so a length still holding together can be dropped, cleaned, painted internally and re-bedded. That costs less than replacement and is far simpler to get past a consent officer.
Does the sea air reach the houses up the hill?
Yes. The whole town sits under a couple of kilometres from the water, close enough for salt to settle at eaves level and keep metal damp between showers. It goes for screws, bracket bolts and downpipe clips first, so we use non ferrous on the exposed elevations.
Will you match a moulded timber fascia or bargeboard?
Yes. We copy the section off the board that comes down, seal the ends and prime every face before it goes up. That preparation is what decides how long it lasts, so it gets its own line on the quote.
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Get the section, the profile and the material written down
Thomas Hannen prices every job himself and puts the material on the quote, so a listed building conversation is short. Free visit, free written itemised quote.